Bangladesh schoolboys die in truck accident

At least 40 Bangladeshi schoolboys died when the crowded truck carrying them
home from a soccer match, plunged into a roadside canal near the
southeastern port city of Chittagong.

The vehicle after it was recovered from the canal Photo: AP

By Rahul Bedi in New Delhi

4:47PM BST 11 Jul 2011

Officials in Chittagong, 136 miles from the federal capital Dhaka said the death toll could rise as rescue operations were continuing and more bodies were feared trapped inside the sunken vehicle.

Eyewitnesses said around 80 boys, aged between eight and 12, were singing and dancing at the back of the truck soon after the football game when it skidded off the muddy road, overturned and plunged into the swiftly flowing canal.

Local police officer Iftekhar Hasan said 40 bodies had been recovered from the wreckage but could not immediately confirm how many aboard the truck had survived as the exact number it was carrying was not known.

It's common in Bangladesh to charter cargo trucks to ferry large groups during festivals or celebrations.

Road accidents too are common in Bangladesh where some 12,000 people died each year in traffic-related accidents that were blamed on old vehicles, bad driving, and poor roads.